The Tennessee Titans are off to a rough start. On Sunday, they lost 33-19 to the Los Angeles Rams, dropping them to 0-2 on the season. Head coach Brian Callahan is probably not going to enjoy many post-game press conferences this year, but it’s part of the job description so he’ll still be holding them until further notice.
The 0-2 start means that the Titans now have lost eight-consecutive games dating back to last season. It’s not all that shocking of a stat considering they had the No. 1-overall draft pick this year, which is awarded annually to the worst team in the NFL.
“Yeah, our urgency is high to get a win,” Callahan said. “That hasn’t changed. It’s been high for two weeks now. I mean, it’s not for, for lack of urgency or lack of intent. Certainly would love to get to win so that our players can feel that feeling and we can get ourselves in the right track, but those are things that we’re all working hard towards.”
In other words, what do you want me to tell you? You watched the game, didn’t you?
Callahan is seeing some really good things from Cam Ward
Against the Rams, Titans’ quarterback Cam Ward was 19-33 passing (seriously? His passing completions/attempts was the same as the final score?) for 175 yards, one touchdown and – perhaps most importantly – zero interceptions.
“Yeah, he sees the field really, really well, that part has been really encouraging,” Callahan said. “I think we had one or two missed opportunities that you can’t miss in a game like that, that we had a chance to generate something explosive, potentially. I thought that he was better with his footwork and with his progressions this week than he was the week before.
“I think he gets better every time he walks on the field and that’s really good to see. The biggest thing for him is the ball security portion. Just trying to keep two hands on the ball moving to the pocket. That’s a thing that all young quarterbacks got to get used to. There’s arms and bodies and people all raking at that ball at a really high rate and we got to do a better job securing it in the pocket, but there’s a lot of really great things from camp. Some of the throws, the location, some of those balls to Elic (Ayomanor) down the sideline, there was some really, really good stuff from the game that I’m incredibly encouraged by.
“Again, you stack another week of practice and another game, and you like to see it continue to get better, and I think we will.”
Ward so far has been okay, he’s still a rookie. But, let’s not forget he has very, very little help. Callahan can’t exactly come out and say, ‘and don’t forget his teammates stink.’
Can the Tennessee Titans make necessary in-game adjustments?
The Titans have been outscored 33-9 in the second half of their first two games this season. That sounds like one team is making adjustments and the other isn’t (I’ll let you guess which one is which). Callahan was asked about the criticism of his in-game adjustments and whether or not it’s valid.
“Those adjustments are ongoing, it’s constant,” he said. “I mean halftime feels like it’s about five minutes long by the time you get in there and make any adjustments that you haven’t made yet. Really we’re adjusting in between every series. We’re going through the looks that we got the series before, what the next calls are that are coming up, where we want to head, what direction, how they’re playing us, how do we counteract it. Those things are sort of ongoing conversations.
“And I’ve always been a huge believer in that this halftime thing it’s very much overblown in terms of what you can accomplish in that short amount of time that you don’t already accomplish in the conversations in between series. That’s really where the adjustments happen is in between series, they’re a lot more immediate than waiting for halftime to make an adjustment, I think. So anytime you don’t perform in those moments though, you’re going to be open for criticism and I understand that. But I would say that there’s— it’s not necessarily a halftime adjustment thing. That’s constantly happening throughout the course of the game.”
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